Learning to Love North Dakota

7 months into my North Dakota life and its feeling more and more like a relationship. I wonder if those who move alot find that they develop feelings towards a place as if its someone they are developing a relationship with, I do.

When I arrived I was enchanted with the possibilites, the open space, and the rementants of summer. The enchantment turned to realism, the realism turned to envisioning our future and now I am seeing those parts I adore in stark contrast with those I really hate. As with most relationships its now a point when I have the choice, do those parts I hate have the power to end this or do the parts I love outweigh and triumph. I am not sure I know the answer. My glass half full self wants to share those parts I just love.

1. Auctions - There are an abundance of these year round, selling everything from Applebes's decorations, to homes to cattle
2. Elderly couples who go on dates at the bowling ally bar, he helps her with her coat and holds out her chair
3. The never ending activity at every place in town, any place any time its happening
4. The hoopla over a new restaurant, we just got a pita pit and people cant control their excitement
5. The decorative gardening in the summers
6. A fantastic public library
7. The Brew (even if 1/2 the people there somehow burn the coffee)
8. Free games of bowling on the back of your grocery receipts ( I currently have 5 in my purse) 
9. The sky that goes on forever, you can see celestial events from our apartment window
10. The Italian restaurant in the hallway of the shopping center
11. We have a university that's in town, and all of town in less than 10 miles away
12. Theodore Roosevelt National Park
13. The Jefferson Hour on Prairie Public

Upper Paddock Creek trail

Mid January and we were missing the park, we headed to the Upper Paddock Creek Trail. There is a nice parking spot just past a drainage bridge, large enough to get just one car off the road.

Just a stark and brisk day to be in the park, but what else could you expect from an early January day. With surprisingly little snow we headed out to get a few miles under our feet and see how the landscape has been doing this winter. I having done the part of this trail during the late summer was excited to see what the differences would be with the passing of the seasons.

We started at the trail head off of the Scenic Loop Drive and slowly descended into the valley. Passing across fields we encountered the most interesting pit of mostly dry mud, trekked over an array of animal prints and poop, leaped across a mucky creek bed, contemplated taking the old trail that had eroded into a steep bluff and found ourselves flanked by painted canyons and standing on grassy table tops with dried and not so dry creek beds below us. A mile and a half in we were in an unrecognizable different world than where we had parked out truck. We took a few moment to take in the beauty and enjoy the weather before turning around and heading back to civilization.

No wildlife today, a trail that is accommodating to those who do not hike much but may pose challenges to very small children. 

Coal Vein Trail

Ian has just moved to Dickinson and I was determined to show him the very best we had to offer. Being a bit tiered after his journey here we opted to drive the loop in the park and walk the 1.2 mile coal vein trail.

Overly enthusiastic we parked our truck and took off on the first trail head we saw, less than 1/4 mile in we came across a large deer family. We both slowed down and spent a moment taking in the beauty and power of these wild animals, each taking our turn to talk to them!

As we progressed along we noticed several marking posts and begun to wonder if we had missed something along the way. The trail is windy has small bridges and heads up and down small valleys. As we dashed along we paused here and there to read tree and plan markers, familiarizing ourselves with our new home. Neither of us sure what a burnt out coal vein should look like we pause on outlooks and made our best educated guesses.

The trail ends much as it begins in a field, however upon reached the end we realized that we had completely   skipped the self guided informational pamphlet as well as the history placard for the area, both of which I would recommend for those who are on this trail.

This is a fairly easy trail and most doable for those with young children or those who do not hike very often.

3 Short hikes in the South Unit, Theodore Roosevelt National park

With my Brothers visit our family headed out to the park once again. Wanting to take in as much as possible in the limited time frame, we selected several short activities to give us a full sample.

Starting at the western visitor center we did a dramatic drop into the canyon and back out all in under 1 mile. This is the most traversed path I have seen in the park and would present quite a challenge to young children or those who have not spent time hiking.

Leaving the eastern edge we passed through a very sleepy Medora into the main park. We drove the South Unit loop heading on the eastern side till we reached the Jones Creek Trail.

 The Jones Creek trail runs through the middle of the south unit, and if you have a driver you can hike across the center of the loop, a nice 3.7 miles, mostly flat, a few small creek crossings, gorgeous outcroppings and mostly flanked by the Jones Creek.







Getting picked up on the east end of the trail we continued on the loop till we reached the ridge-line trail. A short 0.6 miles can be self guided with a brochure found at the trail head. It starts out on a very steep incline to put you on top of the world, giving you fantastic views of the park (by far the best I have seen so far). A short while after reaching the top the trail loops and the tour brings you down one side of the ridge where you pass along a burn area and can see the regrowth following the destruction, steep steps back up the side of the ridge you connect with the original trail, having a second opportunity to take in the vast complexities of the park you head back down to the road.

Our family finished the loop and headed to the visitor center at the main entrance to the south unite. Inside we watched the movie on TR's history with the park and explored the visitor center.

 A great day, saw Bison, Deer, Prairie Dogs and several Hawks